Living on Guard

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LIVING ON GUARD

Eph 5:3-7

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.   6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

NIV

There is a real danger if we allow any of those behaviors that are improper for God’s holy people. The danger is not being able to have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. The problem is this letter is written to the church in Ephesus and which is applied to the church at large. These behaviors must have been present in that church which would have meant some of the believers who have not overcome these behaviors will not receive their inheritance unless they repent, change the way they think and make those changes in their lives. We have the same admonition to watch that we do not get caught up in that trap. We are also told here that we should be on guard against those silver-tongued purveyors of empty words. Those who speak those empty words do not have to be one of the media darlings with a mega church. This kind of thinking can be right in the local church. We have to be careful to not be deceived by those who do not see this truth about immorality, impurity, foolish talk, obscenity, course joking, and greed are justifiable for any reason. Again, it comes down to living a life of love, first for the Lord and second for all others. The fact is that we are to not engage in any of those behaviors and we are not to become partners with anyone that does any of those behaviors. What bothers us is this idolatry. The way the Greek is stated it looks more like greed is turned into an idol, rather than the rest of those behaviors. We also should be aware that greed is not so easily identified as someone who talks foolishly or jokes coarsely or uses obscenities. We can hide our greed, our desire for more and more, or our coveting something we do not have. However, this greed is right alongside immorality and those verbal wrongs. Let us hold ourselves to a higher standard, not according to the law, but according to love for all the saints. We are going to get to the next step, or how we are to live, but for now let us examine our thoughts and actions to make sure we do not behave in any way described here and not become close friends with those who do. Yes, we are all human and subject to failure in many areas of our lives, but these are enumerated for us to make sure we become aware of and be on guard against them.